Jean Jullien, I dub thee my Houdini of Illustrations

I’m an avid supporter of the arts, and for illustrations, Jean Jullien is my favorite artist for them by far.

The French artist’s claim to fame would arguably be at least for most public records, his impromptu illustration of the Eiffel Tower peace symbol in response to the terror attacks in France in 2015; This symbol was subsequently appropriated and propagated by every major and minor media outlet.

Might I also add that I had the pleasure of meeting him in New York that same year at a JUXTAPOZ Newstand Booth in the middle of Times Square? My right hand got to shake with his right hand. It was wonderful, although I regret to say that said hand has since been washed.

Jean Jullien manages to seamlessly blend light humor with real, and sometimes hard life truths, bringing light into the doldrums of life — the happenstances and practical things we get used to seeing and experiencing. He is quickly becoming a veritable influencer, a modern-day wizard, who injects lots of hope and much needed truths into the world.

Here’s a recent work of his depicting the #realreal of city life, specially selected for my fellow New Yorkers:

“I’ve always thought that the race to reach/build/own the tallest building in the city had something of a “male organ” contest. It’s all about erecting the furthest into the air. I can’t draw a male erection so instead I’ll draw a proud & symbolic NASAL ERECTION.”(Left to right) Window Pane #1: “This is a very king of the castle kind of view. The one you want to wake up with every morning. For some reason doing it naked seems appropriate. Sort of like ‘I’m so powerful that i don’t have to wear pants…’ But you’d probably have to on the off chance that you have a less ambitious/more old-fashioned/prude/underaged/not as physically gifted neighbor who’d want to report you for indecency. Window Pane #2: “But it’s also a very ‘Movie Villain” kind of view, a typical Lex Luthoresque kind of view (if such a term exists– if not it should). Whenever I stumble in a room with such a baller view, I automatically walk to the window and put my hands behind my back & mumble something mischievous like “this is my city and soon they will understand and pay for their price of disobedience…’ but my rise to power pretty much stop there…” Window Pane #3: “More realistically I feel that this is a more appropriate picture of what I’d look like if I ever end up living in a room with a view like that…An old disgruntled curmudgeon, bittered by a laborious life of hard work to get to the top of the world to only realize that you’re too old and saggy to pull that performance described two windows to your left.”